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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Traveling with a {6} Week Old

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Well, as you know, we took a road trip over Memorial Day weekend with our little one for the very first time. We take this same trip every year with my Dad's side, but this was the first year (and our first ever experience) traveling long distance with an infant. It actually worked out much better than expected. She slept the entire drive up and then cried for about two hours straight once we arrived. I definitely expected this after her sleeping the entire day, she had some major built up energy to let out (and gas for that matter). After putting her to bed, she slept the entire night, only waking up once. After that, she was amazing the whole weekend, she did so well! She stayed wide awake the whole way home (in a very happy mood) which caused Mommy to be very creative with the entertainment, but overall she did great for 6 weeks old!

So, here are my top 5 tips for traveling with an infant:

#1 Feeding on the Road - For those of you who formula feed this wouldn't even be a concern. However, for those babies that are exclusively breastfed it can be a little more complicated. I spoke with many BFing mothers prior to our trip and everyone had a different way of doing this including some very interesting gymnastics on their part. I found that the easiest and safest method of feeding in the car was to pump and bottle feed her in her car seat. I believe you can purchase a car adapter for about $20. We had access to an AC Inverter, so we just used that. This worked really well. Medela also sells wipes to clean your pump pieces when you don't have access to water. You just have to make sure they completely dry before using them again (this takes about 10 minutes). Our little one is on a schedule, so this method was very convenient for me because I would pump about a half hour early and her milk would be ready for her when it was time to feed.

#2 Diapering on the Road - We would go anywhere from 2-4 hours before stopping. I changed her diaper every chance I got and made sure to slather on her diaper cream to avoid a rash. I also opted for disposables on this trip, which eventually resulted in a rash anyways, but I didn't have time to purchase an extra large wet bag before leaving, so yes, if I had thought ahead I definitely would have kept her in cloth. BTW, I truly realized how much I HATE disposables over the 4 days that she was in them. I couldn't wait to get her home and put her back in warm, cuddly cotton!

#3 Layers - We brought lots of layers for our little one, which was a great decision because it went from snowing to sunny overnight!

#4 Pack 'N Play - This was the best, it worked out perfectly for her. She slept like an angel in it. I also opted to bring her monitor so that we could put her to bed and go hang with the adults, I was super glad I did this.

#5 Front Carrier - This made such a difference! I put her in her front carrier and we played disc golf, went on walks etc. We had brought her stroller and we should have just left it at home because I kept her on me the whole time which worked out better for us. The stroller never left the car!